Short Stories of Mass Effect
by smileymcface
Summary: This is a series of short stories that have been wanting to do for a while now. There is no central theme, just a little project I've decided to start to help with my putting ideas together better for future projects. Tell me what you think, story suggestions are welcome too.
1. Chapter 1

Tears fell, it seemed to take an age before they made it to the cold steel floor. The now wet diamond shapes coming from the metal plating shimmered mockingly, showing her their hard perfection, mocking her pitiful mourning with their strength. Gone. It was all gone, her whole life was shattered, it was all a lie. The freighter who'd taken her in from that infernal placed had asked for her name, and she didn't know how to reply. That broke her strength. The same strength that mere hours before had thrown foundations into the air and torn walls in half, broke, because she did not have a name, pitiful.

A man approached her, the same one who talked to her earlier, the unanswered one. He had green eyes, she had never seen that before. He looked at her and said in a voice sounding like the rough diamonds on the floor, "Look kid, you can't sit here anymore, we gotta prep for the mass effect jump." She stared blankly onto his face, simply unable to cry anymore. A small noise buzzed from the small wired box on his shoulder and he grabbed it and talked quietly into it. "Nah boss, the bitch doesn't know jack about the building down there, we should probably leave before they track that shiny shuttle she was in." He turned to her. "See that chair over there?" She nodded. "When the ship starts shakin', buckle yerself into it." When she didn't respond, he threw his hands into the air and walked away.

All the words he said, she had understood, the girl was anything but stupid, except one, and it troubled her intelligent mind. "Jack" she whispered to herself, what was "jack" and why didn't she know it? The ship began to shake, as the raspy man had said, and she went to the chair and strapped herself in. The entire time she puzzled over this new problem of "jack" as the ship rocketed through space.

* * *

She was asleep in the chair when they came for her. Four men with the hated shock prods that she knew all too well from her guards back inside. That's the only term she knew for the place she had left, it was inside, and as she had killed her way through that place, many of the guards she crushed said the same thing, "She's out! She's out!" So naturally, this side of everything was out, she was Outside, and since the doctors always said she was "inside" back at the place, it was Inside. The girl was not dumb, her brain was marvelous, dozens of doctors had told her.

Their heavy boots woke her. "The batarians pay nice for the young ones." One of them said, he was wearing one of the same grins her guards used to wear, before she crushed their skulls. She young girl stood, confused, she had seen flickers in her vision, she could have sworn for a moment there that she was back Inside, in the arena. She frowned at what she was seeing as her vision continued to shift. The other men began to say things as well, but she was confused and wasn't listening, their voices kept changing, some words were deep and came from men's throats, like the guard's voices. Other words sounded like they had been said by children. The girl raised her hand to her forehead to try to shake what she was hearing and seeing.

Suddenly, it sounded like one of the voices was right behind her and she realized she had been spinning. "You were right," the confused jumble of voices chattered, "she doesn't know jack." Heat rose from that familiar place in her chest and shot out through her hand. Opening her eyes, the girl looked up at the four men now dangling in a cocoon of energy above the diamond deck that had once taunted her softness, as pleasuring chills began to well up in her again. "No." The girl spoke, her voice echoing through her biotic field, "You don't know who _I_ am." Her mind suddenly rushing to the only logical decision. These men did not know her name, and there was one word she did not know the meaning of yet. She smiled as more chills ripped through her as everything fell into place. Clenching her fist the men began to distort under the pressure, "You don't know Jack."


	2. Chapter 2

Kara was running for her life. From who, she had no idea, she was simply walking home from her simple secretary job, then suddenly, she is being attacked. As she ran through the alleyways in an attempt to avoid being seen again, she thought back on whatever in the hell it was she was dealing with.

[_Moments earlier]_

The streets of Mauve VI are always crowded. The city of nearly 30 million was structured like a beehive, everything grew up instead of out as the planet steadily became the center of attention as trading between the turians and the humans finally took off. The entire planet was eternally shrouded in the dark clouds that cast an eternal gloom over the city that Kara always found to be particularly dreadful. Scanning her omni-tool, Kara searched to see if the package she had ordered on the extra-net had been delivered yet, when the little orange screen suddenly went out of focus and, accompanied by a cacophony of under-city insults from Kara, the screen promptly died. With a huff, Kara removed the omni-tool from her wrist and threw it disdainfully into her pack.

"Stupid freaking volus." The young red-head muttered to herself. "'_SSKKKTTTT_ The best I have to offer' he said, '_SSSSKKKKTT _A great deal' he said. 'Never trust a volus' mom used to say, stupid stupid stupid!" Ignoring the looks that other passersby were giving her, Kara went into a small beverage shop to get some coffee to calm herself down. She went to the line and ordered herself a small coffee from the smiling boy at the front and went to sit down and take a personal inventory, as she typically did when she remembered how drab her life had become.

Kara Wright. A 24 year old secretary who was born in space, and thus had a slight slouch to her from years of growing up under odd gravity fluctuations that early ships were prone to. She was rather pale from working in an office all day, and stocky. Not very "gifted" as far as her womanly bits were concerned, but she regularly worked out at a personal gym in her apartment, so she always felt she had something to offer to the opposite sex. Or the same sex, whatever, who was she to judge the type of person she fell for. As with the majority of the working class on Mauve VI, she hated her job. As the economy boomed, the upper class worker's wealth saw a huge boost, which they then felt the need to keep to themselves, after being a secretary for six years, Kara still could not afford to move off of this hell-hole of a planet and get a better job. As she sipped her coffee, she thought again about how romantic it would be to just buy a gun, and go make her way in the world. Like that Shepard guy and his buddies had done a few years ago. Just grabbed a gun, and changed the council, killed a bunch of evil robots, and saved the day. She sighed and muttered, "If only I wasn't me." Finishing her coffee, the young woman stood and left the shop, heading home.

Walking among so many people as the shifts changed, Kara had gotten used to being bumped into, but today, it was different. She was plodding along, thinking about nothing in particular, when someone ran into her, physically _ran_ into her. "I'm so sorry ma'am!" the person said quickly. He was an attractive man, slightly muscular, beautiful deep blue eyes, and a look about him that just screamed confidence.

"What the..." she cried out before the whole picture of the man came into focus. _Holy shit those eyes..._ "Oh! Oh my." she muttered fumbling with her words. "It's no problem at all, it's nothing..You..I..it's fine." Her words were just falling out of her face. _Pull it together Kara! "_Are you alright?" _There ya go girl, a question, keep this sexy beast talking._

_"_Yes," the sexy stranger replied, "I just knocked your bag open it seems, I'm so sorry." he told her as he zipped her pack up for her. "There, all better, I'm sorry once again, I'm late and I have to go." _Oh no Kara, He's going to leave!_ she thought, _ Say something!_

_"_No worries, good luck!" she replied as the young man continued running through the crowd. She promptly began muttering to herself again. "'Good luck?' seriously Kara? Mr. Sex-on-a-Stick bashes into you and that's the best you got? I'll forever be alone." She continued walking home, feeling much worse, when her life got more exciting than she'd ever dreamed.

A man touched her on the shoulder. "Excuse me miss? You seem to have something of mine." he said in a silky voice. Turning to look at the stranger, the sight of the gun he was displaying in his other hand stopped any remark she was about to make and instead, all she managed was a squeaky "What?"

"Please, come with me." He said, leading her out of the street. The strange man was thin, had a mop of dark hair on his head and a hawkish-nose, just looking at him made her shudder, everything about him practically screamed bad news. Stepping into an alleyway Kara's mind began racing. _I don't want to be raped. This isn't happening. I can run!_ Scenario after scenario played through her head as he stepped up beside her. "Give it to me." The thin man said. "Just hand it over, and I'll let you go, no questions asked, no harm done."

The thin man must have planned this well ahead of time because as he said "harm," four other men stepped out of the shadows. All of them looked ex-military types. Broad shoulder, corded arms, and a cool gait about them that said that they were the masters of this particular stretch of alley.

"What do you want?" Kara whimpered. "I'll give it to you, but I..I don't know what you want. Just...just don't hurt me." she struggled not to cry.

"The omni-tool. You have it, and I want it. Just hand it to me." he moved his palm forward. Confused, Kara told the man, "My omni-tool? It's broken, why wou...?" she was cut off as the thin man's gun rose to touch her forehead, he didn't say anything further, he just continued holding out his hand. Tears running down her face, Kara moved to take off her backpack, when the world exploded.

Something detonated between the thin man and Kara and they were thrown in opposite directions. The thin man struck a dumpster and lay still, while Kara, her red hair flying in the wind, was thrown into the street. People began screeming and she lost sight of her captors. With no time to think, Kara stood, and ran, she didn't know why these men wanted her omni-tool, she didn't know what had thrown her away from the thin man. The only thought in her mind at that particular moment was "Run." So she did. With every fiber of her being. Kara ran for her life.

* * *

After running at a full sprint for nearly five minutes, Kara ground to a halt, sides burning, and stepped into a side street to hide. Thoughts were swarming her._ Who were those men? Did I lose them? How did I get away? What the holy hell is going on?_ No answers came to her as she struggled to catch her breath and began to walk quickly and quietly down the street, she was a few blocks from her apartment, she would be safe there, she just knew it. At the end of the street she took a turn towards her apartment, and stopped, she was trapped. Five burly men stood in front of her in a semi-circle. _A whole fucking gang is after me,_ she thought as the tears came back. As one, the men raised their handguns. Kara was dead, she was dead the moment the thin man had touched her, and now she knew it. These men weren't here to kill her, they were simply here inform her that she had been dead for a while, she just hadn't realized it at the time.

People say that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes, Kara smirked as the stared down the barrels of five separate weapons. Lies, all lies, your life doesn't flash before your eyes, she knew the truth now, everything goes in slow motion and nothing matters anymore. It was a curious feeling.

The men paused. This pale, red-headed woman, with tears freely flowing down her face, was grinning at them like a crazy person. They were trained killers, all of them, but still, there was something about this innocent woman smiling that gave them pause. It killed them.

Kara was in shock, she didn't move as the sixth man stepped into her sight, she couldn't move. An old, battered pistol was in his hand and it roared twice, and two of her killers toppled over. The other three turned to address the threat that was suddenly standing right next to them. Punches were thrown, weapons fumbled, one of the killers fell, holding his throat as well as the newcomer's pistol, this unknown savior, was now unarmed. The strange man seemed to be go through the motions as this miniature war became a fist-fight. It was horrifying. With two men attacking him, he showed no emotion. A fist flew at him and he blocked it, a knee came in towards his stomach so he side-stepped. It looked almost, practiced, or choreographed. Kara was confused, the killers seemed pleased, they knew that they would win.

Then a knife lashed out from one of the killers, opening a line on the strange man's already marred cheek, and light shown in the man's eye again. The formula had changed, life was on the line again and this man, first and foremost, was a survivor, that much suddenly became dreadfully clear. As the third killer tried to re-enter the fray, still holding his throat, he saw the tide turn. This strange man in yellow, who had seemed so dead, was alive again. The threat of death invigorating him, energizing him. He was suddenly a dancer, twirling on one foot as the other met the pistol in the hand of the third killer, the stranger's own pistol. He set the foot down and, continued the spin, he literally crushed the third man's face with his gloved right hand, blood flew everywhere. He instinctively ducked down, dodging a punched aimed at the back of his head and reached back behind himself, grabbed the punching man's foot, and yanked. The killer fell hard and the stranger caught him by the throat, breaking his neck with the killer's own momentum as he fell. The knife man lashed out, only to find the stranger behind him. The stranger kicked him behind the knee and muttered in a strange accent, "You shouldn't have hurt my pretty face." The man growled and thrust backwards with his knife over his shoulder, hoping to impale the stranger's face, but the stranger simply pushed the knife to the side, burying the knife instead in the face of it's owner. He screamed, and the stranger pushed him over and stepped back, "Not very fun is it? Losing an eye." The stranger stooped and picked up one of the fallen handguns that had belonged to one of Kara's killers. The final gunshot broke Kara out of her stupor. She had been standing there for less than ten seconds.

As she came about she fell to her knees in front of her savior. "Who?" was all she managed to say as the stranger approached her after retrieving his gun. Regarding her with his good eye, the stranger in the yellow armor knelt down beside her and said, "Relax sweetheart, I've been paid to take you to a safe place." Grabbing her by the shoulders he lifted her to her feet and continued, "Name's Zaeed, let's get you out of this bloody hell-hole."


End file.
